• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.48 no.2
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• pp.105-110
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• 2015

Objectives: Recently, low systolic blood pressure (SBP) was found to be associated with an increased risk of death from vascular diseases in a rural elderly population in Korea. However, evidence on the association between low SBP and vascular diseases is scarce. The aim of this study was to prospectively examine the association between low SBP and mortality from all causes and vascular diseases in older middle-aged Korean men. Methods: From 2004 to 2010, 94 085 Korean Vietnam War veterans were followed-up for deaths. The adjusted hazard ratios (aHR) were calculated using the Cox proportional hazard model. A stratified analysis was conducted by age at enrollment. SBP was self-reported by a postal survey in 2004. Results: Among the participants aged 60 and older, the lowest SBP (<90 mmHg) category had an elevated aHR for mortality from all causes (aHR, 1.9; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.2 to 3.1) and vascular diseases (International Classification of Disease, 10th revision, I00-I99; aHR, 3.2; 95% CI, 1.2 to 8.4) compared to those with an SBP of 100 to 119 mmHg. Those with an SBP below 80 mmHg (aHR, 4.5; 95% CI, 1.1 to 18.8) and those with an SBP of 80 to 89 mmHg (aHR, 3.1; 95% CI, 0.9 to 10.2) also had an increased risk of vascular mortality, compared to those with an SBP of 90 to 119 mmHg. This association was sustained when excluding the first two years of follow-up or preexisting vascular diseases. In men younger than 60 years, the association of low SBP was weaker than that in those aged 60 years or older. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that low SBP (<90 mmHg) may increase vascular mortality in Korean men aged 60 years or older.

• Anxiety and mood
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.24-29
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• 2014

Objectives : This study aimed to investigate the associations between physical disorders and prevalent/incident suicidal ideation in a community dwelling older population aged 65 years or over. Methods : 1204 people aged 65 years or over evaluated at baseline. Suicidal ideation was identified using the questions from the community version of the Geriatric Mental State Schedule ("GMS B3"). Reported physical disorders covering 11 common and generally chronic health problems were ascertained. Covariates included were depression, age, gender, years of education, accommodation status, past occupation, and current occupation. Of 1066 without suicidal ideation at baseline, 805 (76%) were followed 2 years later, and incident suicidal ideation was evaluated. Results : Prevalent suicidal ideation was significantly associated with 4 of 11 physical disorders: eyesight problems, persistent cough, heart disease and paralysis or weakness in one leg or arm. Incident suicidal ideation was associated with 3 physical disorders: asthma, high blood pressure and paralysis or weakness in one leg or arm. Both prevalent and incident suicidal ideation were significantly associated with increased number of physical disorders. Conclusions : Certain physical disorders were comorbid and precipitating factors of suicidal ideation in elders. And appropriate intervention and treatment of physical disorders might prevent suicidal ideation in elderly.

• Science of Emotion and Sensibility
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.1-9
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• 2002

It is already known that olfactory susceptibility differ with races and sex. Moreover, with aging both detection and identification about olfactory information were impaired. For researches about evaluation of the odor with aging, although the subject used, from infants to elderly, was various, the kinds of odor used were restricted to simple alcohol and acetic acid. Also, the evaluation methods were mainly used olfactory test. From over respects , this research was done as follows. Subjects were 19 to 72 years (n=50) whose sense-of-smell functions are normal. They were taken as stability and closed eye state. The odor stimuli were used 100% natural odor of six kinds of Basil, Lavender, Lemon, Jasmine, Ylangylang oil and Skatole , during 60 seconds using olfactometer. ECG, GSR and subjective evaluation were measured, and examined their relevance. Twenty and 40 ages group evaluated Lemon and 60 ages group did Lavender affirmatively. Correlation was seen among RRI, HR, GSR and subjective evaluation for 40 ages group, and it turns out that it is the group which a mature olfactory function most. These results are fully applied not only to development of the classified cosmetics for the age group but to development of the artificial smell and taste.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.26-36
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• 2020

Background: The purpose of this study was to analyze the relationship between the regional characteristics and the age-adjusted cardio-cerebrovascular disease mortality rates (SCDMR) in 229 si·gun·gu administrative regions. Methods: SCDMR of man and woman was used as a dependent variable using the statistical data of death cause in 2017. As a representative index of regional characteristics, health behavior factors, socio-demographic and economic factors, physical environment factors, and health care factors were selected as independent variables. Ordinary least square (OLS) regression and geographically weighted regression (GWR) were performed to identify their relationship. Results: OLS analysis showed significant factors affecting the mortality rates of cardio-cerebrovascular disease as follows: high-risk drinking rates, the ratio of elderly living alone, financial independence, and walking practice rates. GWR analysis showed that the regression coefficients were varied by regions and the influence directions of the independent variables on the dependent variable were mixed. GWR showed higher adjusted R² and Akaike information criterion values than those of OLS. Conclusion: If there is a spatial heterogeneity problem as Korea, it is appropriate to use the GWR model to estimate the influence of regional characteristics. Therefore, results using the GWR model suggest that it needs to establish customized health policies and projects for each region considering the socio-economic characteristics of each region.

• KIPS Transactions on Software and Data Engineering
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• v.9 no.10
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• pp.309-316
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• 2020

We predict the mortality of the elderly patients visiting the emergency department who are over 65 years old using Feed Forward Neural Network (FFNN) and Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) respectively. Medical data consist of 99 features including basic information such as sex, age, temperature, and heart rate as well as past history, various blood tests and culture tests, and etc. Among these, we used random forest to select features by measuring the importance of features in the prediction of mortality. As a result, using the top 80 features with high importance is best in the mortality prediction. The performance of the FFNN and CNN is compared by using the selected features for training each neural network. To train CNN with images, we convert medical data to fixed size images. We acquire better results with CNN than with FFNN. With CNN for mortality prediction, F1 score and the AUC for test data are 56.9 and 92.1 respectively.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.84-90
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• 2000

Background and Purpose: Stroke in young adults is relatively uncommon. Only 3.7-14.4% of all strokes occur in patients aged 15-45 years. Stroke in young adults has more various and diverse possible causes than stroke in the elderly. We studied to gain further insight into both pathogenic and etiologic determinants in young adults with stroke. Methods : We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 230 young patients aged 15-45 years who were admitted to the 2nd internal medicine department of Kyung Hee Oriental Medical Center with a diagnosis of stroke between May 1995 and May 1999. We analysed clinical features and diagnostic tests, such as brain imaging, cerebral angiography, echocardiography, 24 hours holter monitoring and other laboratory tests. Results : 1. Of 230 young patients with stroke aged 15-45 years(176 males(76.5%) and 54 females(23.5%)), 140 patients(60.9%) showed ischemic stroke and 90 patients(39.1 %) showed hemorragic stroke. 2. The most prevalent age group was from 40 to 45 years with 142 patients(61.7%) 3. The most frequent site of 140 ischemic stroke was MCA territory in 93 cases(66.4%) and Multiple, VA territory, PCA territory, ACA territory in order of frequency. 4. The most frequent site of 90 hemorrhagic stroke was basal galglia hemorrhage 57 cases(63.3%) and subcortical 13 cases(14.5%), pons, thalmus, subarachnoid, cerebellum in order of frequency. 5. The causes of hemorrhagic stroke were hypertension 49 cases(54.5%), arteriovenous malformation 7 cases(7.8%), ruptured aneurysm 4 cases(4.5%), angioma 3 cases(3.3%). 6. The risk factors of ischemic stroke were smoking, alcohol drinking, hyperlipidemia, hypertension, obesity, heart disease, history of CVA, diabetes mellitus, in order of frequency. 7. The comparison of risk factors between ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke: hypertension was prevalent in hemorrhagic stroke, heart disease and history of CVA were prevalent in ischemic stroke. Conclusions: From the above results, we found that stroke in young adults had various possible causes. Young adults with stroke deserve an extensive but tailored evaluation which include angiography and echocardiography for diagnosis.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.50 no.5
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• pp.79-89
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• 2012

The purpose of this study was to investigate differences in the value of children according to the demographic characteristics of mothers with young children. This was to examine the relationship between psychological and environmental factors, and the value of children to mothers with young children. The participants of this study were 237 mothers, who had young children. Descriptive statistics, t-test, F-test, and Pearson's correlation analysis were used for data analysis. The results were as follows: First, the value of children was different according to the child's factors (gender and number of children in the family, etc.), the mother's factors (age and education, etc), and the family's factors (household income and cost of bringing up the child). Second, familism is related to emotional value and instrumental value, parenting efficacy is related to emotional value and social value, children's temperament is related to emotional value, and the value of children from mother's reference group is related to emotional value and instrumental value, social value, and burdensome value. As for the implication of these findings, value of children from mother's reference groups is important for changing the value of children of the mothers with young children.

• Clinics in Shoulder and Elbow
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.94-99
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• 2020

Background: Intra-articular distal humeral fractures can be surgically challenging. It remains under discussion whether open reduction and internal fixation (ORIF) or total elbow arthroplasty (TEA) is more beneficial for treatment of the elderly. This study aimed to compare the clinical and functional outcomes of ORIF and TEA for managing intra-articular distal humerus fractures in patients aged 65 years or older. Methods: Patients who underwent ORIF (n=28) or TEA (n=43) for in intra-articular distal humerus fracture between May 2008 and December 2018 were reviewed. Range of motion, Mayo Elbow Performance Score (MEPS), Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder, and Hand (DASH) score, radiologic outcomes, and surgical complications were evaluated at the final follow-up visit. Results: The ORIF and TEA groups showed a mean arc of flexion-extension of 97°±21° and 101°±12°, respectively. The mean MEPS and DASH scores were 94±15 and 27±12 points, respectively, in the ORIF group and 81±27 and 47±28 points in the TEA group. This difference was statistically significant. The incidence of total complications was similar between the groups. Conclusions: In patients older than 65 years with intra-articular distal humerus fracture, ORIF had better outcomes than TEA.

• Korea journal of population studies
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.113-133
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• 2011

The generation of babyboomers has a significant impact on the socio-economic development of the society in general. The Korean Babyboomers will soon leave from their workforce as they reach the retirement age. This, coupled with the low fertility rate, may cause a serious social problem in the society at large as well as the social welfare issues among the Korean elderly population. The Central Statistical Systems have estimated the future projection which plays critical role to establish fundamental basis for the social and economic policies of the nation. This study examined the effect of the babyboomers on the life expectancy by comparing forecasted life expectancies provided by the statistical office and the previous studies in the related areas. The study also suggested a future population projection based on fertility rates provided, along with the changes of the number of babyboomers as they become ageing. The study results with the comparison between the population projection by the statistical office are provided.

• Journal of the Korean Dietetic Association
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.30-41
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• 2020

As the morbidity of chronic diseases such as diabetes and high blood pressure has increased, the frequency of oral dryness upon taking drugs for a long time or several drugs at the same time has greatly increased. This study was conducted to investigate the status of oral dryness and utilize the data to develop treatment products. Surveys were assembled from October to December 2018, and a statistical analysis of the 144 responses was conducted. The surveyed consisted of 60 males and 84 females, with 31.3% of those in their 70s and older. Among them, 100 people took drugs for chronic diseases, while 27 people took drugs for more than 10 years and less than 20 years. Exactly 23 respondents who took drugs suffered from more than two types of chronic diseases, of which high blood pressure was the most cited, followed by hyperlipidemia and diabetes. Regarding complications, oral dryness (33.8%) was the most frequent, and there were significant differences in the degree of discomfort when taking medicine, especially for oral dryness depending on the age (P<0.05). Groups that took medicine showed severe symptoms of dry mouth, especially when waking up at night or in the morning (P<0.001) and eating food (P<0.01), and had difficulty in swallowing food (P<0.01) and speaking (P<0.01). Exactly 89.6% of the respondents didn't take lozenges (candy) for improvement of oral dryness, and the type of the product that they wanted to purchase the most was candy (45.1%). Respondents worried about rising blood sugar, dental caries, and calories when eating candy for relieving dryness (P<0.01).